The survey on local agricultural machinery manufacturers was carried o

ut in Nigeria between 2nd and 9th June 2021. The objective of the survey was to identify opportunities and challenges related to local manufacturing and to develop policy recommendations on how to make such manufacturers thrive. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Three states were purposively selected for the research. The basis for purposive selection was the high concentration of local manufacturers in those States. Kaduna (core North), Niger (North Central), and Oyo (South) states were selected. List of local manufacturers was obtained from Agricultural Machineries and Equipment Fabricators Association of Nigeria (AMEFAN) and Federal Institute of Industrial Research (FIIRO), Oshodi, Lagos State. Snowball technique was used to select additional local manufacturers to make up 30 respondents per state, making a total of 90 local manufacturers for the study. Additionally, thirty (30) key informant interviews and 10 net map discussion sessions were held that cut across the selected states. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the local manufacturers, while checklist was used to get the required information from the identified key stakeholders. The findings identified raw material providers, financial institutions, training institutions, farmer’s association, gasoline and gas suppliers and electricity suppliers as the major actors in the local agricultural manufacturing industry. The study further revealed that most of the stakeholders were familiar with agricultural manufacturing operations and challenges confronting the sector. It was also deduced generally that the local agricultural manufacturing sector in Nigeria performed below average. This was as a result of numerous factors, such as inadequate capital, high cost of raw materials, epileptic power supply, inadequate training, insecurity, bad roads and insufficient commitment on the part of policymakers. However, majority of the respondents were optimistic that local agricultural machinery has the potential to meet the yearning of smallholder farmers in Nigeria once the identified challenges are addressed. The study, therefore, recommended regular and intensive consultation among the identified key stakeholders, and making policies or work on the implementation of existing ones towards resolving issues on factors impeding progress of manufacturing agricultural machineries in Nigeria.

This study was published as FARA Research Report 6 (12): Pp 76.